XFactors
by AnimeClouds
Summary: X-Factors, ninja so powerful, they're in their own class. Nuke-nin Uzumaki Naruto is one of the special few. Trouble is everywhere, a war between all nations is on the verge of starting and one nin arose among the chaos. Just who is this Laughing Dragon?
1. Prologue

**Hey, this is my first fanfic so take it easy on me. I've had a bit of experience on writing stories and fanfics but still...Usually I know the plots for the fanfic but for this one, I only have a general idea on what will happen so ideas and suggestions would be much apprieciated. I do not own Naruto...that's why I'm writing a fanfic aren't I?**

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X-Factors, shinobi so powerful that they're in a class of their own. The Sanin and the Akatsuki look like Genin fresh from the Academy compared to them. Their very presence will change the outcome of a war. Every nation is fighting for to have one on their side, the Nine Jinchurriki are all classified X-Factors, the "Last Uchiha" Sasuke Uchiha and the Rokudaime Hokage, Sakura Haruno, are also among the special few shinobi. Now you may ask, why isn't Naruto Uzumaki or should I say Naruto Namikaze isn't Hokage? Because he became a Nuke-Nin, for bringing Sasuke back...on the verge of death. For that, the Fourth's Legacy was exiled from the village.

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_{Flashback}_

_"I'm so sorry Naruto, but the civilian council demands you to be banished from Konoha, there's nothing I can do," Tsunade got out of her seat, her face streaked with tears. She absolutely hated the council, and in return, she refused to heal Sasuke's injuries and prohibited all medical ninja to as well. 'Let's see how well he does without us medics'_

_"I knew it was coming Baa-chan, I'll have to leave as soon as I can," Naruto sighed and shook his head sadly. Earlier, he had changed out of his bright orange jumpsuit into loose black fighting pants and a dark gray shirt to help blend in a little more. The moment he brought the battered Sasuke back, a huge mob of angry citizens surrounded him, angry at him for harming their precious Uchiha._

_"Wait, take your inheirtance with you," Tsunade sniffed and wiped away the last of her tears. She straightened out her wrinkled clothes and took a deep breath. Without another word, she turned to the Fourth Hokage's portrait on the wall. Pressing a hidden button made the portrait swing to the side and to reveal a hidden safe. "These are yours," _

_The Forbbiden Scroll, a small yellow scroll, a large black scroll, a small tattered leather bound book and a picture frame were laid out carefully on the desk. Naruto pushed aside the scrolls gently and picked up the picture frame. In it was the Fourth Hokage and a red haired woman holding a baby. Both were smiling happily, cradling their child._

_"Are-The Fourth is my father?!?" Naruto asked awed and shocked at the same time. He picked up the leather book and flipped through it to the last entry, which was dated, October 10th._

_"Yes, Minato Namikaze was your father and your mother is Kushina Uzumaki, they would have been proud of yo-" Tsunade was cut off when there was a sharp rap at the door. "Tsunade-sama! The civilian council would like to see you now in your office." Shizune called._

_"Go now, keep safe I'll contact you via slug," Tsunade spoke hurriedly in hushed tones. All the while she was speaking she slid the Fourth's picture into place and fixed her desk so it looked like she was working._

_Startled, Naruto quickly gathered his inheirtance and leapt to an open window. "I'll be back one day Baa-chan, I'll become more powerful," with one last look around the office, he dissapeared not to be seen for another year or two._

_{Flashback End}_

That was two months ago. Now Naruto had been constantly on the run from all the Ne ANBU that Danzo had sent to hunt him down. At first he had thought of staying at Suna but then that would put Suna at a difficult position with Konoha. Not wanting to cause a war between the two nations, he had wisely chose to stay away.

Currently, he hid in a rocky forest outside of Iwa, no Konoha nin would dare stray here, ordered or not. It was simply unreasonable. If they were caught inside the borders of Iwa, the Iwa nins might take this little intrusion and turn it into an excuse to wage war against Konoha once more. But the Ne ANBU were becoming more and more daring and sly. They now wore the uniforms and headbands of Kumo nins. So if they were caught, the blame would be shifted to Kumo.

Naruto sighed and leaned back against the tree behind him. The last two months were spent training. He figured out his elemental affinity, wind and lightning. The big black scroll he recieved held alot of those kinds of jutsu's along with a whole lot more. Heck, the Chidori even showed up in there. There was one other jutsu that he had mastered...well mastered to a point that he could use it but not completely mastered. That was the Rasengan, one of the most powerful jutsu his father had created.

Originally, it was done with a clone helping him produce the chakra he needed. Now he finally managed to get it with a single hand. The Rasengan was such a versatile jutsu, it was simply the foundation to a whole new level of jutsu's.

Suddenly, he sat up, snapped out of his thoughts by the sudden presence of several high leveled chakra presences. 'Ne again,' he realized. Silently, he leapt onto a nearby tree branch, creating several clones as he went.

One clone continued his path, skimming lightly through the thin foilage. The climate was not suitable for trees to have foilage dense enough to provide enough camoflauge but it'll have to do.

The second clone veered sharply off to the right, heading for the river nearby. The thicker underbrush that grew near the water's edge would provide a decent cover, better than the trees did anyways.

The final clone leapt away deeper into the meager forest, trying hard to blend in with the tree's and the shadow's they cast.

Once his clones were on their way, Naruto dove off the branch he was on and hit the ground running. His steps were silent and unnoticable, cloaked in wind chakra, effectively silencing them. Turning sharply, he headed towards the rocky terrain that Iwa was famous for. Effortlessly, he leapt over a large boulder in his way and landed right behind it, deciding whether or not to take a rest there when the ground gave away.

He tumbled heads over heels into the pit and landed at the bottem with a thud. Groaning, he looked around him, the pit was about 10 feet in length and 20 feet high. For some reason, the walls were smooth and shiny, he found out why when he tried to stick to them and walk up them. The walls were chakra-absorbant so whatever fell in could not climb back out or bust their way out.

Cursing inwardly, Naruto simply settled down to wait. It didn't take too long before footsteps were heard and a some crouched on the side of the pit. Someone wearing a dragon ANBU mask looked down at him, the person raidiated calm confidence with no intention of killing him. "Namikaze Naruto, wielder of the Kyuubi no Kitsune I presume?"

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**That's my first chapter, I have a couple more ideas for fanfics in the works, being polished up so I can actually write them. And updates may or may not be weekly, it depends on the time I have. R&R please and thank-you!~AnimeClouds**


	2. Proposal

**Hey guys! It's me again! I managed to type and edit a new chapter in early so I could get started on another one of my ideas. I have more dialogue in this chapter but the thing is, sometimes I get a little too carried away with the talking and the chapter ends up looking more like a script than anything so I tried my best to fix up the dialogue but let me know if it's too much and I'll fix it. On with the chapter!**

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"You presumed right...who are you?" Naruto looked up at the guy at the lip of the pit. A black and white katana hung on his right hip, a similar and much shorter wakizashi was strapped down in the white sash across his waist. Just above his head was the long hilt of a nodaichi and something that looked the end of a staff.

"I am who I am," seeing Naruto's confused face, he chuckled, "My real name is of no matter, but around the nations, I am known as Laughing Dragon, you may call me Laughing,"

Naruo felt his jaw drop, Laughing Dragon, the very shinobi who rose from a mere C-rank nuke-nin to a S-rank nuke-nin for a massacre far more worse than the one that made Itachi famous for. During one night, he killed ninety percent of the people in Oto, civilians and shinobi, women and children, all dead. Then when the dawn broke, he simply laughed at the bloodied village below and vanished.

"Seeing your expression, you know who I am. Now I have a proposal for you. One that will benifit you and me," Laughing looked around him cautiously before turning back to the trapped nin in the pit below him.

"Continue, I'm listening," Naruto frowned at this, even though he was a nuke-nin, he tried to keep his rap sheet as clean as possible. And this proposal that Laughing was offering didn't sound too much like it was going to do exactly that.

"I've been wandering about nations, looking for a partner for quite some time now, but I have found none that fits the bill, until you came along. You see, we're one of a kind, basically brothers, not by blood but by demons," Laughing seemed to grin demonishly at Naruto but he couldn't really tell because of the mask and all. "Here, how about an offer you can't resist. Join me and I'll help you improve your rasengan."

"Wait a minute, back up here, you're saying you're a jinchurriki as well?" a mere nod was the simple reply, "And how would you know the rasengan?," Naruto pondered skeptically, while the offer was tempting, this guy could simply be a Ne ANBU trying to trick him into trusting him and then backstab him later.

"I know every jutsu there is, there's certain perks to stealing scrolls..." Laughing admitted sheepishly, "But pushing all that aside, you can sit here and wait for the Ne ANBU to catch up or hurry up and get the hell out of here already,"

Naruto thought about this, pacing back and forth in the little space he had. Suddenly, he was assaulted by a whole bunch of memories due to his clones he had created earlier disspelling. Two Ne ANBU's catching up to him and then the 'pain' of 'dying'. Being found and then burned by a fire jutsu. Blown to bits by an exploding tag on a kunai. Death by any of those ways didn't seem paticularly appealing to him. "Alright, alright, I'm with you, now get me out of here!"

Laughing nodded and began forming handseals "Doton: Doryuu Heki!" the large earth wall began forming under Naruto's feet. With a sudden lurch, it rose to the height of the pit, allowing Naruto to step out. A large black dragon sat a little bit aways from them, at Laughing's command, it walked over silently and lowered itself so they could get on.

"Get us to Cresent Moon Island, fast," Laughing instructed as he leapt onto the dragon. He then bent down and helped Naruto climb on as the dragon's muscles rippled, launching into the air. "Sit down and use chakra to stick to Chisoku," Laughing stood in between the wing joints, not even slightly ruffled by the wind rushing past him. In fact it was somewhat like there was a dome around the flying dragon, repelling the wind and the drag, making them go even faster. With a shrug, Naruto dissmissed the thought and relished in the fact that he was flying. A much more different experience than running or riding on a toad.

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Hours later, Chisoku disspelled without another word when Cresent Moon Island came into sight. Both of them began the long decent towards the clear blue ocean beneath them. Naruto flipped heads over heels in an attempt to land on his feet so he wouldn't sink into the water, eventually he gave up trying but continued flipping over cause he couldn't stop, instead he screamed the whole way down.

"First thing to do on my list, teach Naruto to fly," Laughing sighed and dove downwards towards Naruto, easily dodging the odd seagull who had ventured into their path. Rolling his eyes, Laughing hurriedly launched himself after Naruto, trying to catch him before he hit the shark infested waters below. "Wait, there aren't supposed to be sharks around these waters...shit!"

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The situation in Konoha...

Konoha seemed a little duller after Naruto left, the sun never did seem to shine as bright nor did the birds sing as loudly. It was simply too quiet. Hinata had eventually locked herself up in her room for days and refused to eat. Sakura spent her time at the hospital or at a training ground where she would punch the landscape into rubble. Kakashi was later than ever, sometimes not showing up at all, spending much of his time at the memorial stone. Iruka, quit his job as an Academy Instructor and joined the ranks of Jonin and ANBU Black Ops. He's out of the village, on missions most of the time, barely staying in the village for more than one day.

Sasuke...well he was a different story, when he woke up, the civilian council threw a festival for him and the banishment of Naruto. When he found out Naruto was gone...he put more than half of the civilian council members on a four month or more medical leave with his cursed seal; level two, another two on a 'permanent' medical leave. It was an understatement to say he was pissed. Now he spent alot of his time at the memorial stone and ontop of the Hokage Monument as well, drinking more sake than Tsunade did.

Tsunade wanted to retire early and started training Sakura to be the new Hokage since Sasuke refused. Nowadays, all the paperwork is done immeadietly, and as soon as it's done, Tsunade vanishes for the night, only to show up the next morning, drunk.

Gaara's and the Subaku sibling's visits have been less and less frequent, the alliance between the Sand and the Leaf is still there, but it's on a very thin line. Gaara chose not to break it off out of respect for the blonde, it was Naruto's 'precious' village once. That was what was happening between Iwa and Konoha right now. The tension between the two is even thicker due to all the Ne ANBU disguised as Kumo nin going into Iwa's territory to hunt for Naruto. It seems Naruto was the one who kept everything in balance around Konoha, and without him, Konoha was in chaos.

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**Sneak Preview:**

"T-that's what you call a shark? T-that's Kisame Hoshigaki!"

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**Well, there's the chapter, hope you guys enjoyed it and let me know on the dialogue thing. I also have another fanfic coming out soon and I don't really have a title for it yet so...just look out for it. See ya next time ~AnimeClouds~**


	3. A shark and a raven

**Hey guys! It's me and I'm really sorry that this chapter is really late. Some things came up, like a huge project and I had no time to get the chapter up. I got a couple reviews which was good and I'm really happy with the turnout of this story. So I thank all my readers and reviewers and please enjoy my extremely late chapter!**

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Naruto was falling, that was all that mattered...other than the fact that he was falling into shark infested waters. He glared up at the guy who got him in this mess in the first place, with some level of difficulty since he was tumbling down head over heels. Laughing noticed the glare and waved cheekily at him, soaring through the air like it was nothing. He pushed some chakra into the air, making him go faster, zooming past Naruto and landing lightly in the waters below without so much as creating a ripple.

"Use chakra to stay on-" Laughing was cut off by the splash of Naruto landing. He had managed to push the chakra out in time, leaving him standing knee deep in the water. "At least you're not completely soaked," Laughing mused and helped him onto the surface of the water. A quick wind jutsu dried them both off.

"Are there always sharks in these parts?" Naruto glanced dryly at the sharks leering at him from below, as if daring him to come and join them.

"Nope," Laughing frowned, and looked around, analyzing the appearance of the sharks. "They were summoned by someone, or it's shark season, and I didn't remember." He began walking, carefully skirting around the shark fins and trying not to disturb the sharks.

Naruto chuckled nervously at one shark who swam close to him and was now examining him, seeing if he was a suitable lunch. Gulping, he hurriedly followed Laughing, eager to be away from the sharks.

"There's a shark swimming directly to us, and at high speed." Laughing paused and gestured to the large blur that was zooming through the water, creating quite a disturbance in the water. There was a sound from above and Laughing looked up, only to see a raven gliding above them. 'A shark and a raven, where have I seen this before?'

"What are we gonna do about it then?" Naruto pointed frantically at the incoming blur that was nearing them rather quickly. A little too quickly for comfort.

"It's a shark, so whack it on the nose, it's quite sensitive there, but watch where you're hitting, not my fault if you lose an arm because you missed." Laughing shrugged, his hands in his pockets, looking as carefree as ever, as if attacking sharks were an every day part of his life.

Naruto gulped and readied himself seeing as Laughing did not make any move to stop the shark so it was up to him. As he was about to spring and hit the shark, the shark suddenly rose out of the waters and stood on two human feet. "T-that's what you call a shark? T-that's Kisame Hoshigaki!"

"It is? Oh it is! I thought a blue shark was weird. Now where's your partner, shark?" Laughing scratched his head sheepishly. Playing dumb was a pretty good way to disguise how strong you were, it didn't always work, but still, it was better than nothing.

Just as Kisame was about reply, the raven flying from above suddenly turned into Itachi, who stood there, calmly assesing the situation. "I'm right here and I believe you know what we want,"

Laughing frowned at that, of course he knew what they were here for, the demons inside of Naruto and himself but there was no way that he would let them get that. "Yes and you'll only get them over my dead body." there was the sharp rasp of a sword being unsheathed and the long nodachi on his back was pointed at the Uchiha.

"Then we'll just take them from you by force. Try not to make such a big commotion Kisame," a pair of Sharingan eyes stared at the pair of jinchuuriki. Kisame simply grinned and unsheathed Samehada, letting it rest on his right shoulder.

"I'll take Uchiha, take fish-breath Naruto," Laughing ordered, his eyes locked on the Uchiha, not meeting the deadly gaze of the Sharingan. Naruto nodded and moved away from the two, creating shadow clones as he went.

"Mangekyo Sharingan, you're a goner," Itachi whispered as he finally was able to lock eyes with Laughing.

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The sky turned red and the clouds turned black. Laughing found himself tied to a cross with a multitude of Itachi's all around him, each holding a sword. "Welcome to Tsukiyomi, for the next 72 hours, you will be tortured." One of the Itachi's spoke, presumably the real one. Laughing simply lifted his masked head and laughed, like his name implied. When he finally stopped, it was because he could laugh no more, after a little bit of heavy breathing, he caught his breath.

"Ooh, torture, I'm so scared! I've laughed at the face of death, torture is really going to scare me!" Laughing chuckled. "You may be able to torture me if this was your world, but from where I'm from. My mind is my world!" the scenery changed. The red skies vanished, only to be replaced with black. The black clouds turned red, the multitudes of Itachi vanished, replaced by dragons. And in place of Laughing on the cross, Itachi found himself tied down. Laughing now stood in front of him on the ground, his nodaichi in his hand. "Let the torture begin!"

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Naruto grunted and was able to maneuver away from the blade coming centimeters away from his face. Although he did not know Laughing well, he knew him long enough to know that he had quite a sadistic streak. Leaving him alone with Kisame, tch, couldn't he have left him a shadow clone or something to help him out? Lashing out, he kicked Kisame in the gut with a chakra covered foot and managed to get some distance between them. Still, he was at a serious disadvantage, having water and sharks surrounding him was not exactly his strong point.

Creating another dozen shadow clones, he sent them all except one at Kisame, distracting him while he prepared his signature move, the Rasengan. Once the clones were all disspelled, he rushed forward, his remaining clone acting as a screen. "Rasengan!"

Kisame realized what was happening and lifted Samehada to block the attack, it's chakra eating ability was useful in many different stiuations, this one included. But what happened was that the rasengan hit the sword head on, and the sword's chakra eating ability could not eat the chakra fast enough. This resulted in an overload of chakra and a large crack in the sword.

The Kiri nuke-nin pulled away, when he saw what happened to his beloved sword. Samehada was supposed to be unbreakable but this brat had cracked it. Before Kisame could charge again, he was stopped by the blade of your's truly, Laughing.

"Move one more step and I'll be having shark fin soup tonight," Laughing's gaze was cold and hard. All traces of the earlier casual him gone, a battle hardened warrior prepared to kill mercilessly held the blade instead.

"We'll retreat for now," Itachi wheezed, barely able to stand. At his word, Kisame helped his partner up and they vanished in a blur of black, the sharks vanishing as well.

"What now?" Naruto panted and turned to Laughing who stood there, hardly out of breath.

"Now nothing, we simply train, your taijutsu is garbage," Laughing summoned a boat out of a scroll and leapt in it, picking up the oar from the bottom of the boat and chucking it to Naruto. With a sigh, Naruto joined him in the boat and the two began rowing towards the shore of Crescent Moon Island in the distance.

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**There's the new chapter, it was a quick write up and quick edit so I'm really sorry if it sucks. If there's something wrong with it please let me know and I will re-edit it and fix it up. R&R please!**

**~AnimeClouds~**


	4. Crescent Moon Island

**Hey guys it's me as usual! I'm sorry if this is late for whoever deems it late but I was working on Crouching Fox, Hidden Dragon so it slowed me down alot. But in the end I got the chapter done although it's probably a little rushed due to Mother's Day and all....but anyways! Here's my new chapter!**

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It took a good ten minutes of rowing to get the the shore of Crescent Moon Island. Once Naruto was able to see the island in detail, his jaw dropped open. There were tons of people playing, swimming, and lounging at the beach. If Jaraiya was here, he surely would have passed out at all the girls in swimsuits. As they rowed on, past the beaches, towards the docks, ships and boats of all sizes sat in the deeper water. Many were fisherman, with nets and poles dangling over the side of their craft.

A light bump signalled that they had reached the dock. Several fishermen looked up from their docked boats and greeted them warmly, their boats already tied up. Laughing clambered easily out of the boat and onto the wooden planks that made up the dock. He helped Naruto up and then resealed the boat into the proper scroll.

Both of them followed the crowds of citizens and tourists that widely inhabited Crescent Moon Island. The main industry here was tourism after all. A quick walk brought them to the city center, the main street. Most of the shopping was done here. Stores and stalls lined the cobbled street which often branched out down a slightly smaller side street which only contained more stores. At the end of the street was a large marketplace where most of all the stalls are. Shouts of bargaining were heard even from the beginning of the street and many people often left much poorer than they went in.

Directly across from all of the marketplace was a large block of hotels and inns. There were your average everyday inns, the more fancier ones and private cabins for rent. Naruto followed Laughing down the street, amazed at all the sights. Even Konoha didn't get this busy no matter what day it was and Konoha was one of the main trading places. He had almost got lost when Laughing turned into the block of inns but was dragged back on track with a sharp jab to the ribs.

Laughing walked through the mazes of streets without hesitation, he knew exactly where and when to turn, it was as if he had lived here his whole life. Most people would simply end up getting lost and asking for directions. Eventually, the noise died down to a quiet throb, only heard occasionally. The path they now walked upon was a gravel path, although Naruto didn't remember the path changing from cobbles to the gravel crunching beneath their feet. All the commercialized inns and stores were gone, only to be replaced by quieter homes of the citizens.

Eventually, the houses around them faded to trees and gravel path faded to dirt. The path was not very worn out, it looked as if it had been sweeped recently due to the lack of leaves and branches on the neat dirt path. Soon, the path lead uphill, winding around a mountain. The air was a little bit thinner here and Naruto had to use chakra to keep up with Laughing's long. even strides. Finally Laughing slowed down when a metal gate that oddly resembled Konoha's main gates came into view. The gate was locked but the key was fished out from inside a pocket and the gate unlocked.

A creak was heard as the gate swung open that sounded oddly out of place in the serene and peaceful forest. Laughing closed the gate behind Naruto and relocked it. He grunted and lifted a thick bar made of an odd metal with a bluish tint to it. This was placed into the two bluish latches and the gate was bolted shut.

A minute went by silently, then a monk appeared seemingly out of nowhere and bowed to Laughing. "Welcome back Master Laughing," the monk straightened up and Naruto was able to scrutinize his features. The monk was a little shorter than him, his head shaved bald like all monks. He wore navy blue robes with a lighter, blue sash tied around his waist. A staff was tied to his back via the sash.

"Thank-you Brother Roku, I send my warmest regards to the Grandmaster and the rest of the brothers in the temple." Laughing in turn bowed to the monk. "This is my partner Naruto, he needs some through work on taijutsu and perhaps a weapon, he is not prepared for the world outside. I was wondering if the brothers at the temple could help train him."

Roku nodded, "I understand then, we would be more than honoured to help, I'll take you to your rooms for you to clean up before we go see Grandmaster at dinner."

"Alright then, lead the way," Laughing gestured towards the path leading past the courtyard to the rooms.

The walk was fairly silent, as they passed the courtyard, many monks stopped in their exercises to greet Laughing who responded warmly and to greet Naruto. They turned down a hall when a voice spoke up.

"Look who's back, thought you would never come back to finish up our little spar," a monk about Laughing's height leaned on the pillar behind him, a blade grass between his teeth. Unusual enough, he carried a red katan at his waist, which was unusual because most monks here like Roku, carried a blunt weapon like a staff or tonfa.

"I come and go as I please, Shichi you very well know that, I am not bound by anything. I'm only back to train my unprepared partner here," Laughing gestured to Naruto who waved meekly, "Naruto, this is Shichi, my so called rival, Shich this is Naruto,"

"Nice to meet you, I'm in charge of kenjutsu here, come see me if you need anything on swords or any weapons in that matter," Shichi waved a Naruto. He stood up straight and headed back to the courtyard, "And you still owe me that spar Laughing!"

Rolling his eyes, Laughing had found that Roku had already left after unlocking two rooms, his original room and a spare one that was kept aside for guests. He stepped into his original room, and closed the door behind him, letting Naruto know that the other room was his. Now in the privacy of his own room, he sighed and began rummaging through the closet for something more suitable to wear when seeing the Grandmaster. They haven't seen in a good year, a good first impression would be nice, unless the Grandmaster was still angry at him for what he had done a few years back...

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**There we go! Tune in next time to find out what the heck Laughing did to piss Grandmaster off! And just a reminder...the more reviews I get, the longer the chapters will become! It's a win-win situation!~AnimeClouds~**


	5. Grandmaster

**Hey guys! It's me as usual! This is coming in late as usual so no surprise there! I'm really happy about how thie fanfic and Crouching Fox Hidden Dragon has taken off, I'm so proud of myself! Anyways, it's getting near the end of the school year and it's getting busier and busier. I have a huge project I have to work on so all fanfics will be coming in later than usual. Other than that, enjoy the chapter!**

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Laughing was waiting patiently at the door when Naruto left the room in his new clothes. He had left his mask and weapons in his room along with his ANBU gear. For the first time, Naruto could see Laughing's face. Black hair tipped with silver stood up in spikes, his stormy grey eyes had a confident look about them making one feel safe to be around him. His calm demeanor hiding whatever he was currently feeling, two elongated canines poked out of his upper lip, making him look like an Inuzuka.

"Let's go, Grandmaster is waiting," Laughing stood up, his black martial arts gi pants swishing as he did so. Not another word was exchanged as Laughing led Naruto through the halls of his former home. The wooden halls were all empty, assuming everyone was at dinner. After passing many doors which all looked the same, Laughing stopped and gently slid one open.

Inside was a grand hall lined with tables filled with food and monks of all ages sat on mats which served as seats. In the middle of it all was a table larger than the rest with twelve seats around it and one throne like seat at the head of the table. All of the seats were filled, even the throne like one but one was left empty. On the throne like seat sat a monk older than the rest, the Grandmaster. His head was bald like the rest of the monks, but a greying beard sat on his chin.

Silence followed as Laughing and Naruto walked down to the tables. The Grandmaster stared at Laughing, his hazel eyes not noticing Naruto following him. Unflinchingly, Laughing returned the stare, his grey eyes never straying from their target. Nobody dared move and interupt the staring contest, for the Grandmaster's fury was to fear. Finally, the Grandmaster spoke, "So you've returned, my wayward disciple. After what you have done three years ago, you still dare to return. Have you no shame or guilt?"

"I feel no guilt for what I have done, if I had not done it, this temple would have burned to the ground. Your sanctuary gone, you've always taught us that we should do what we feel is right, protect what is important. But you have not done so yourself, you hide away in the temple, build so many walls around yourself so you won't be harmed. All you do is hide in your petty teachings, you're nothing but a coward, a hypocrite," Laughing growled the last few words.

Three years back, when Orochimaru attacked the temple, Laughing had taken the temple's treasure, the Dragon Sword and fought him off by himself. The Grandmaster didn't show up until after Orochimaru retreated, the Dragon Sword could only be touched by the Grandmaster of the temple. The thing was, when the Grandmaster retired, his direct disciples would try to unsheath the sword, only the true master would be able to unsheath the sword. And since Laughing unsheathed it, it made him the master. Not ready to retire yet, the Grandmaster stormed up such a fury that Laughing was forced to flee along with the Dragon Sword.

There were several gasps following Laughing's words, nobody ever dared talk-back to the Grandmaster, much less call him a coward and a hypocrite. "You dare..." the unspoken threat hung in the air. While the Grandmaster was old, he could still match up with many younger shinobi. The sound of wood meeting tiled floor echoed through out the hall as the Grandmaster picked up his staff that served as a cane and stood up to his full height.

"I dare, I dare to do the things you don't allow us to do because you're afraid that all of your disciples will turn out to be like me. I dare draw the Dragon Sword, I dare use the true form of the Dragon Sword, I dare use chakra and ninjutsu and genjutsu and I dare using my demon," Laughing growled defiantly. He walked swiftly up to the Grandmaster, towering over the old man by a good half a foot.

"Let's take this outside," Grandmaster replied and led the way to the dusty courtyard, dinner completely forgotten.

"Fine," Laughing shunshined away with a gust of wind that ruffled everyone's clothes, leaving Naruto to follow the monks to the courtyard.

* * *

Laughing was already there when Grandmaster and the rest of the monks arrived. He had traded his clothes for his ANBU gear and his mask was on the back of his head instead of his face. His swords were not on his back but probably in his room still and he held a spear in his hands.

"This is what happens to misbehaving disciples," Grandmaster planted his staff firmly into the ground and shrugged the cloak off his shoulders. Neither of them moved, just staring right at each other in a deadlock a gust of wind blew shaking the trees and riling up the dust. Leaves fell all around them and on some unspoken signal, both of them leapt at each other.

There was the wooden thok of staff meeting spear, then a blur as both of them moved swiftly and effictiently to parry one another's blows. One minute it would be Grandmaster on the offense, twirling his staff expertly then the next minute, he would be hurriedly backpedaling as he dodged Laughing's spear's attack.

"You forget, the spear was not my favorite weapon," Laughing spoke as Grandmaster dodged, letting the spear fly past him. Grandmaster's eyes widened slightly as he recalled what his former disciple's favorite weapon was.

"That's right, you remember now, my favorite weapon-" Laughing flicked his wrist and the spear split into three parts, each linked to the next with a long black chain. The three parts now wrapped around Grandmaster, "was the sanchigun, **(AN: three part split stick or three part stick or something like that)**

Laughing flicked his wrist again and the weapon unravled, sending Grandmaster flying and forcing him to stop his momentum by digging his staff into the ground. "You were always the trickster," Grandmaster murmured. "Will you ever forgive what we-no I have done?"

Laughing walked over and rested on hand on top of Grandmaster's hand and staff, "I have, but it's you who needs to forget the past and look to the future, you're living in the past old man," his voice was softer now, less harsh.

"I guess you're right," Grandmaster squinted up into his student's face, "But that still doesn't give you a right to insult me," Grandmaster whacked his student across the top of his head with his staff, "Drop and give me 500 push-ups, you won't get dinner until you're finished,"

"Hai Grandmaster!" Laughing immeadietly hit the ground and started doing push-ups, a small grin evident on his face. Oh how good it was to be home again.

* * *

**There's your new chapter! I hope you enjoyed that! Please let me know if I have screwed up anywhere and remember to review! The more reviews the longer the chapters! R&R! ~AnimeClouds~**


	6. Next Stage

**Hey guys! Clouds here and I've just had the best day of my life! Last day of school, yes! And ontop of that, my school hired a hypnotist to preform a show for us, the most funniest show I have ever seen in my entire life! He would just snap his fingers, and people would just fall asleep right away! It was funny cause they would lean over and end up sleeping on someone else's lap or something. Plus he made this one girl dance like Brittany Spears and my English teacher think he was Barbie Girl and dance with the princepal! TOTALLY AWESOME! Anyways, thanks for waiting for my new chapter, here it is!**

* * *

Five Months later...

"Shichi's a slave driver," Naruto complained after a typical day of training with Shichi, he laid sprawled on the ground, covered in a layer of sweat and dirt. As usual, he would be forced to do laps around the island, something made relatively easy with his huge stamina. But soon, Shichi started adding weights and seals to slow him down, making it hard even for someone like himself. After running, he would have a spar with Shichi in which Shichi would criticize and correct him. Most of the time, Naruto would finish the spar with several dozen scrapes, bruises and cuts.

"I've heard," Laughing sat down next to him in the shade of a tree nearby, a double popsicle in his hands. **(AN: I don't know what you call those popsicles where there's two in one and you can break them apart) **He swiftly broke them apart and offered half to Naruto, who grabbed his greedily. There was several moments of slurping and licking as they hurriedly finished their cold treat before it melted into a sticky mess.

"You've come pretty far Naruto, I think it might be time for you to move on to the next stage," Laughing commented casually as he finished off his popsicle. Planting the stick into the ground, he brought up a sphere of water from the well that was in the middle of the courtyard. He used the water to wash his hands and waited patiently for Naruto to finish washing his before letting the water splash over some of the flowers in the garden.

"What is the next stage?" Naruto asked absentmindedly, chewing on the popsicle stick. He was curious, he had spent five months here, hidden, isolated from the outside world. He didn't know much of what happened outside of Crescent Moon Island, only little bits and pieces from visitors from inland.

"Oh, that's easy, make a name for yourself," Laughing grinned, this was his favorite part. It was fairly simple to make a good reputation. You get a trademark outfit or symbol, like his mask. Go do something insane, well not insane...heroic...brave...crazy...just start picking up difficult missions and stuff that pays well and is pretty darn near impossible. Then make the impossible possible.

"I'll tell Shichi to go get you ready, you have a week here on this island to prepare and buy any necessary supplies like weapons and such, Shichi will take you to this guy I know who will make you a mask. That will become your trademark symbol. I on the other hand, will go inland and find some of my older clients and stuff and pick us up a job. It'll be your first job so I'll make it relatively easy, after a bit, we'll start moving up the ladder onto more difficult and harder jobs."

"Yes! Finally something exciting!" Naruto grinned widely, finally something to do other than training day and night. He was trembling with anticipation and excitement, dispite being all worn out from training with Shichi. Finally, he could prove to Konoha what he was made of.

A bell sounded out in the distance signalling it was almost dinner time, the shuffle of feet could be heard as monks who were out training, hurried to the baths to wash up before they ate. "Go wash up and eat Naruto, I'll make arrangements with Shichi and Grandmaster." Laughing waved him off. Naruto was off in a blur, hoping to get a good spot at the table so he would get some of the ramen first. Laughing sighed and got up, heading in the other direction, where Grandmaster's room was located. He was sure he would find Shichi around somewhere...

* * *

"Wake up Naruto, wake up, WAKE UP!" Naruto was jolted out of his bed by the loud voice. He hit the ground with a loud thump, completely tangled up in his blankets and drool dried on his face.

"Argh...what the heck!? I was sleeping!" Naruto looked up, blinking the sleep futilely out of his eyes. When he could finally see straight, he was met by the sight of a very smug looking Shichi staring down at him. "It's not a training day, go away," Naruto mumbled sleepily and tried to clamber back onto the bed.

"So, I still have to take you to see Kenji to make your mask don't I?" Shichi whacked Naruto over the head. He grinned sadistically, he knew the blonde could not resist the offer, and he was right. The blonde was up in a flash, hurriedly grabbing his clothes and shoes as he ran off towards the baths to get dressed.

Several minutes and a lot of cursing later....

Naruto arrived at the front gates, breakfast clutched in one hand and the other hand was busily trying to tame his unruly hair. Shichi rolled his eyes and unlocked the squeaky gate, yelling to Roku that they would be back later. The two walked down the trail, where already several monks were out and about with brooms and sweeping off any debris that may have fallen onto the path during the night.

Instead of heading towards the area that was slowly but steadily filling with tourists wanting to get the first grabs on items at shops. Shichi headed towards a more quieter part of town. The regular middle size houses were replaced with little homey cottages, each with an elaborate garden in front of them. Naruto was so caught up in the scenery, he didn't even notice that Shichi had stopped until he crashed right into him.

"You baka, watch where you're going!" Shich grumbled, rubbing his sore head, "Either way, we're here, this is Kenji's place," Shichi unlatched the wooden gate which was the only entrance to the fence surounded area which opened smoothly on well oiled hinges. Inside were tons of statues, carvings and such, all of them laid out all over the front yard. It was like a garden of statues and carvings.

"Who goes there?" an old man shuffled out of the house at the back onto the front porch. He used a carved cane to steady himself as he walked somewhat unsteadily down the stairs. The old man had scars all over his arms and legs, there was even a nice diagonal slash on his right cheek. He had graying hair that was already turning a light shade of white but his piercing green eyes still had a spark in them.

"It's Shichi, Laughing wanted me to bring his friend and my student Naruto here to make himself a mask," Shichi walked calmly right up to the old man with Naruto tagging not to far behind. At the mention of his name, Naruto waved and grinned meekly.

"Another mask then, well then come in, another legend has to be born then," Kenji waved his cane about before turning around and headed back to the house. "Help yourself to some breakfast, there's food on the table and the tea's on the stove," Kenji shuffled into another room, which seemed to be his work room, looking for something.

Shrugging, Naruto munched away on some of the pastries on the plate in front of him while Shich poured three cups of tea and set them on the table. Several moments passed until Kenji returned with what seemed to be a stone. He set the stone on the table in which Naruto studied very carefully. It was pure black and glittered, almost like a precious gem. It was also a peculiar stone, perfectly circular, and it had never stopped spinning since the moment Kenji set it down.

"I want you to pick the stone up and focus some chakra into it," were the simple directions given to him by the old man. Frowning slightly at this odd order, but deciding he had nothing to lose, Naruto did as told. The stone didn't stop spinning while he held it in his hand. No matter how tight he held it, it never stopped moving. At last, the stone stopped moving and easily floated out of Naruto's grip, hovering in mid-air.

"Interesting young one, your's seemed to have changed as well,"

* * *

**There it is! I will update Crouching Fox Hidden Dragon later and then Haven in the sky after that! Please R&R my pairings are largely undecided and suggestions would be great! ~AnimeClouds~**


	7. First Time

**Hey guys! This chapter might be a little late, I'm truly sorry, there's just so much pressure, with school and everything. Seriously, I'm sorry, I don't know when the next Haven in the Sky chapter will be updated, but I'm a quarter done writing it, now I just half to finish and edit it. Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Kenji took the stone from mid-air and shuffled back into the back room, not telling Naruto what he meant by those words. The door swung shut behind him and the sounds of hammering came from the back room. About a half an hour later, which Shichi and Naruto spent swapping stories and drinking tea, Kenji reappeared, in his hand a red fox mask. It was finely carved, the six whisker marks matching Naruto's whisker marks. The inside was black like the stone and covered in glowing white lettering and seals. "This mask is yours, do not ever lose it, if you do, I will beat you until you wish you were dead..."

Naruto gulped at this death threat and took the mask carefully, as if scared of damaging it in anyway and getting beaten for it. "Thank-you old man, I'll treasure it," He slipped it into a padded cloth bag that Shichi had produced out of nowhere and said his goodbyes to the old man.

"If you ever want anything made or need repairs come straight back to me!" Kenji yelled, waving at the two retreating figures. "Ah, how good it is to be young...I hope Laughing doesn't run him too hard..."

* * *

"Well Naruto this is goodbye," Shichi grinned at him, messing up his hair. They stood at an empty dock which Laughing had told them to meet him at, ready to leave. "No matter how strong you get out there, remember that you can always come back and spar with me, cause I'll whoop your ass any day of the week." He handed him the katana on his belt, "This is my katana, you better use it well, otherwise I'll give you a beating worse than Kenji will beat you."

Naruto returned the grin with his own foxy grin and accepted the katana, strapping it to his belt like Shichi did. "No problem, and I whoop your ass all the time," he never really did but he was sure he could if he were allowed to use Kage Bunshin. Their conversation was interrupted by Laughing pulling up in that rowboat that they had used to first get to the island.

"Hope in, we've got a our work cut out for us for a bit," Laughing had his mask on, making his voice a bit muffled but still reconizable. Waving a last time at Shichi, Naruto jumped into the boat and swung his bag holding his mask and gear into the boat. His gear consisted of black cargo pants with a red stripe running down the legs and a loose red battle gi with a black fox across the back and front. He took up the other set of oars, helping Laughing row out to sea. As he rowed, Naruto looked back at the island, watching it become smaller and smaller, until it was just a pinprick on the wide horizon. When he could no longer see the island that was his home for a few months, did he turn his attention to the other figure in the boat.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked, curious at what his first job would be.

"There's a client who wants a scroll from this one collector. It's highly guarded so it could be tricky, but nothing big to worry about." Laughing shrugged, he had gone on missions like this loads of times, it wasn't his first.

"That's what you say, but remember me? This is my first time here, couldn't you be a little more helpful?" Naruto retorted, Laughing was treating him like he had done this kind of thing his entire life, which he kinda had, but back then, they had a planned out strategy and a bigger team for this kinds of things.

"Uh...easy, we knock out all the guards, waltz in, take the scroll and waltz out," Laughing took off his mask and grinned, it was a method which he used everytime, it never did fail him no matter how many guards they put up or traps for that matter.

"Kami help me, I'm stuck with a moron," Naruto groaned, and facepalmed.

* * *

They arrived at Claw country about two days later, a little faster than Laughing had originally planned. There, they made their way into one of the main cities in Claw country and settled down at an inn. The two of them sat on the roof of an apartment building later that afternoon with a stolen pair of binoculars, scouting out the target's house. "This should be it," Laughing pointed at the huge mansion surrounded by a tall stone wall a little bit down the street.

"I see about thirty guards, probably more than that though in there," Naruto whistled and lowered the pair of binoculars from his face, "Alot of guards to protect a civilian collector guy." Guards stood at the front gates, weapons slung across their backs, a few guards here and there patroled the outside perimeter and Naruto bet that there were tons more inside those walls.

"This guy's a famous collector with a huge collection, and a little paranoid too," Laughing told him, taking out the scroll the client had given him at the beggining of the mission. "About 100 guards, forget a little paranoid, this guy has an army in there."

"So when do you wanna strike?" Naruto asked, still watching the guards and noting the times the patrols came around.

"You have all your gear here?" Laughing asked absentmindedly, stuffing the scroll back into his pouch.

"Yeah, why?" Naruto was confused, why did he need his gear at this paticular moment? They were just sitting on the rooftop, looking at the guy's house through a pair of stolen binoculars, where did his gear come in?

"Go get changed, we're going in now."

* * *

About half an hour later, the two of them had all their gear on and in position. They had gone over the plan earlier. The plan was for Naruto to cause a diversion big enough to get most if not all of the guards' attention, then Laughing would just go in, grab the scroll and go. Originally, Naruto had argued about why he had to take down all the guards. But then Laughing had bluntly reminded him that this job was building up _his_ reputation not Laughing's so Naruto had relectuantly agreed.

"It's better if you kill them, leave a few survivors to tell the tale but destroy the rest," Laughing reminded him over their com-link. Naruto sighed, adjusted his fox mask and watched the guards, they switched every hour, so their switch should be just about....now! "Go!" Laughing hissed at him over their com-link. The guards had gone inside the gates, seizing his opportunity, Naruto crashed through the gates with a chakra re-inforced shoulder just as they were about to close it, Shichi's katana drawn. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark shadow flitting over the wall and into the mansion. He grinned, Laughing had infiltrated the mansion

"Who are you?!" one of the guards demanded, all four guards had their swords drawn. "I am Kitsune, your worst nightmare, prepare to meet your demise," Naruto replied cooly. Before the four could say anything else, there was flash of blades and blood spurted everywhere. "Four down, ninety-six to go," two screams echoed from within the mansion. "Make that Ninety-four actually," Naruto smirked, he was gonna enjoy this somehow.

* * *

A little over ten minutes later, Laughing met him in the bloodstained, body filled hallway with a the need scroll and several other scrolls tucked away safely in his pouch. With a nod, the two of them headed down the hallway, Naruto had left four survivors, one in the bottom of a heap of bodies, one hanging from a tree by his underwear and two bound and gagged, thrown in a closet he had found, all of them had his name imprinted in their minds and a wild story to tell. It was easy getting out with all the guards down, even the collector was unconcious, buried under a pile of his own precious treasures.

They snuck out of the place easily, using a genjutsu so that nobody on the streets would see them, masked and bloodied. They arrived at the inn, still under the genjutsu cover. One of the first things they did was secure the scroll, Laughing sealed it into a storage seal he had on his arm specifically for this purpose. Then they cleaned out their bloody clothes as best as they could and headed for the hot springs to wash the filth off of their skin and hair.

"Not too bad for your first," the hot spring was completely empty at around this time of day, it was just too hot to be in the springs, but the two would much rather be all hot and sweaty than to have someone else's blood on them any longer. Naruto just nodded, the adrediline in his system finally dying down, leaving him kinda tired. He did a once over on his wounds, Laughing had gotten off without a scratch lucky guy, Naruto on the other hand, after fighting all those guards had a dozen of bruises, scrapes and minor cuts, all which would heal within the hour or so.

"Is this how it's going to be every time?" Naruto asked, his head flopped back, eyes closed, letting the hot water soothe his tense muscles.

"I don't think so, some jobs might have the two of us on opposite ends of the world, so you might just have to tough it out on some missions," Laughing replied breezily, with the two of them, it was easier than sending a heavily chakra enforced clone should the need come for a two man mission.

"In that case, when's the next mission?" Naruto was suddenly enthusiastic about it, all those pent up frustrations he had collected in Konoha had fueled him, some were released in that bloodbath back there. It almost felt good killing them, or was that the fox's instinct taking over? Naruto mused over this thought for quite some time until his head hurt, was he becoming what he never wanted to become?

* * *

**There's my latest chapter! Is the fox taking over? Or is Naruto becoming a cold-hearted murdurer? Find out when I post my next chapter! Which could be quite a bit I apologize but stay tuned! R&R! ~AnimeClouds~**


	8. Change

**Sorry for the long wait for me to update, between school and getting my Halloween costume ready, October is a harsh month. Plus I feel sick...no not H1N1, I just ate all my Halloween candy last night, the entire damn garbage bag, so good...this was a pretty exciting chapter for me to write, a turning point for Naruto you could say. I have figured out how the plot goes and will end, so it'll be smooth writing from now on, I might write a sequel to it if I get enough REVIEWS, *wink wink nudge nudge* but that depends, so enjoy the story!**

* * *

Several months after Naruto's first mission as Kitsune and a good dozen dangerous and daring missions later, Kitsune was a legend on the streets. His name whispered on many shinobi, men, women, and children alike. Some in fear, some in awe at one with such power, and some in hatred. Rumour had it that he had partnered up with the infamous Laughing Dragon, who was no laughing joke, (pardon the pun) oh how they were so right. The Elemental Nations haven't seen anything yet from them.

Currently, both of them were in the capital of Tea Country on a high paying mission. A wealthy and old client of Laughing's wanted a certain secret blueprint from the Damiyo of the Tea country who kept it in a heavily guarded safe, along with several other extremely valuble items. The problem was, the Damiyo had hired many shinobi, not to guard the safe oddly, but to guard his daughter, who had the very special key to the safe around her neck. So in a way, he was guarding the safe as well as his daughter, who was getting married in a couple of months to a rich merchant's son, many were jealous so there were many saboteurs.

While the both of them liked being daredevils and stealing it in broad daylight, this mission was too risky. Their intel had only given rough numbers on how many shinobi had been hired and had narrowed it down to about three different villages from which these ninja came from. Damned intel, now they had to go and scout for intel themselves. Now a good half a dozen carefully henged clones made their way through the capital city, watching for any foreign ninja or people with high chakra signatures that could potentially become threats, the originals sat in one of the best hot springs in the city, in the mixed bath, relaxing and chatting away in a carefully constructed code.

"What's the forecast for tomorrow Honda-san?" (Any news from your clones Naruto?) a disguised Laughing leaned against the heated rocks that surrounded the hot springs.

"I think it's partly cloudly with some sunshine Yoshi-san," (Not much, all reports from the clones have been pretty good.) Naruto replied, basking in the heat from the water.

"Really gentlemen? I heard it was going to be downcast with slight chance of showers," a feminine voice said from behind them. The sound of feet slapping against wet tile was heard as many people got into the mixed hot spring.

"Ahh...the water here is much hotter than in Konoha..." Naruto allowed his expression to fall to a slightly intimidated and surprised face as ninja appeared all around him. Even more surprising was that Naruto reconized these people. Everything seemed so distant, his past life, everyone in it. They had all changed, but Naruto still reconized every single one of them. Neji, Tenten, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Sakura and of course the bastard himself, Sasuke.

As much as Naruto wanted to leave the hot springs that very instant, he knew tha Laughing would want to stay and see if they could gather more information on the Konoha nin, although Naruto could easily report many things on his fellow comrades. Laughing chatted amiably with the few around him, easily slipping into the act of some gentlemen on a vacation. Naruto sighed, he wished he could be so open like Laughing again, but after leaving Konoha, keeping everything to himself was much less painful.

After a good ten minutes or so of chatting with the Konoha nin, Laughing excused himself and Naruto from the hot spring, and headed out to the showers where both of them could get out of there. As they left, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them, "Something's fishy about those two..."

* * *

"Now we know who we're up against, I say we go in tonight, kidnap the damiyo's daughter and use her as a distraction with some clones. Then we go in while they're off trying to rescue her and get out quickly," Laughing informed him once they were in the safety of their room, which was sound proofed.

There was a pause as Naruto didn't reply, drifiting off in his own thoughts. Rolling his eyes, Laughing shook Naruto vigorously, effectively snapping him out of his momentary lapse. "Huh? What?"

"Are you worried about hurting them? Since you spent many years with them?" Laughing asked just out of the blue.

Naruto frowned and thought about what was said. He had so much more bad memories than good memories, and many of the memories he had considered to be good was simply him being naive and not accepting the truth, feeding himself lies and creating a fantasy world he was happy in. But that was the old Naruto, here, the new Naruto had real friends at the temple, and of course Laughing and Kitsune. Kitsune was now a part of him, he no longer heard Kyuubi in his mind anymore, but Kitsune. It was like Kitsune had silenced Kyuubi like he had silenced so many others...permanently.

Making up his mind, Naruto replied in a grim voice, "Don't worry, I won't hurt them, Kitsune will..."

* * *

That night, Kitsune and Laughing stood at ready on a nearby rooftop, all their things packed up, ready to go once they had their objective. Laughing summoned half a dozen clones with a wave his hand. They headed out, prepared to take the damiyo's daughter and create the distraction that would let Laughing and Kitsune slip in and out unnoticed.

At this time of day, the damiyo's daughter sat in the water garden with only a few guards, the hired shinobi out on patrols at this point. It was simple for Kitsune and Laughing to knock out the guards and kidnap her before she could call for help. Once tied and gagged and the key removed, she was turned over to the clones who deftly ran into the middle of the courtyard with her, yelling and shouting, immeadietly attracting everyone's attention.

"Now's our chance," Laughing whispered as they sped through the grassy courtyard, sticking close to the tree line to remain hidden. They leapt onto the tiled roof silently and into the mansion itself.

* * *

Sasuke had this odd feeling that something was going to happen tonight and when the others rushed off to check on the commotion in the courtyard outside, he remained behind, patrolling the hallways inside, comlink switched on in case should anything happen.

It was getting to be boring at this point, maybe he should have gone with the others and gotten some action at least on this mission, he told himself, but no, you just had to stay cause of this queasy feeling. So when two masked individules came in through an open window, he was more than estactic. But still just in case, he radioed in with the others.

"Sasuke here, I have two unknown hostiles in the north end of the building, strength unknown, but looks like at least Jounin strength, requesting back up," he could say no more, as the two in the masks spotted him and walked in his direction.

"You want me to take him Kitsune?" Laughing asked, hand on his katana.

"No, I'll deal with him Laughing, this will be a sweet victory," Kitsune grinned devillishly under his mask, waving his partner on. Laughing nodded and took off down the hall, vaulting over the two blades that had appeared, one from Sasuke and one from his partner, blocking the attack.

Footsteps like a stampede were heard as the others arrived, having to defeat the clones outside. Lee leapt forward to pursue Laughing but found his path blocked as Kitsune merely caught him around the waist and threw him back easily.

"You'll have to go through me to get to my partner," Kitsune told them idly, planting his katana in the wooden floor they stood on.

"You've got guts to try to defeat all of us," Kiba told him, a rather large Akamaru barked in agreement with his master.

"I'm not going to try to defeat you all, but I will defeat you all," Kitsune corrected him, pulling his katana out of the floor and holding it in a relaxed stance, feet shoulder width apart and both hands hung loosely down at his sides.

As if there was some unknown signal, the two sides charged at each other. Naruto ducked under a Katon jutsu and jumped over a Gatsuuga, only to find himself the target of a chakra induced bone shattering punch, seeing no choice, he lifted his katana and attempted to block it, running chakra through his blade as well. The force of the two attacks collided, creating a backlash force which blew them both apart, slamming both sides into the walls.

When the dust cleared, Kitsune remained standing, only his mask had been blown away from the force. Leaving an unsmiling, cold Naruto standing there. Realizing his mask had fallen off, he retrieved it, and slid it back on, on the back of his head as Laughing sometimes did. He couldn't hide behind Kitsune forever, this was one mountain he had to get over.

"Naru-" Sasuke's words were cut off as a katana came whistling through the air, aimed to kill.

"Why Naruto? Why? When did you change into...Kitsune?" Sakura cried out as she punched the blade away from them. She didn't want to accept this as the truth, it was a genjutsu, but they all knew he failed miserably at genjutsu.

"When I realized that reality was harsh, when the little world of lies I had built collapsed around me, when I met Laughing and he beat it into me, that the _world_ won't change for me,_ I _have to change for the world."

* * *

**That's the end of the chapter, tune in next time to see how Naruto turns out and some action from the Akatsuki :D Remember to review. the least you can do is to cheer up a sick author...Later, ~AnimeClouds~**


	9. Glass

**Hey guys, it's me as usual. Thanks to all whom have reviewed, your constructive critisicm was very much apprieciated, even if it was just a few words of encouragement, nobody asked you to write a whole essay for me. This chapter has alot of fighting in it, which was mildly difficult for me to write but I got over it. This chapter is also a turning point...kinda for Naruto, or should I say Kitsune, more fight scenes will come as they face off against the Akatsuki and various other high leveled ninja. I have not decided what to do with Sasuke yet so please don't ask right now, but other than that, enjoy :D**

* * *

"When I realized that reality was harsh, when the little world of lies I had built collapsed around me, when I met Laughing and he beat it into me, that the _world_ won't change for me,_ I _have to change for the world." A long silence followed these words as everyone tried to digest the words that had changed their old teamate so much. This silence was broken by Naruto himself, with a chakra filled stomp of his foot, he sent all the floorboards of the wooden floor beneath him flying upwards, creating a nice distraction as well as from a gaping hole in the floor should he or Laughing have the need to excape from the building in a hurry.

The wave of the floorboards also carried his Kitsune mask towards him, which he plucked out of the boards with his katana and allowed it to fall gently into place, onto his face. Even before the dust and debris had cleared out, Kitsune knew exactly where everyone was and what to do, his hunter's instinct told him everything, from the cockroach skittering on the floor because the floorboards had disturbed it to the leaves floating in from the open window. Without any hesitation what-so-ever, Kitsune leapt through the dust, katana out, ready to attack mercilessly.

Sasuke saw this coming and ducked under the incoming blade but didn't foresee the foot that followed the blade and was thrown into the wall with an almighty thud. Kitsune knew his priorities, who was strongest, who was fastest and who to take out first. Twirling his katana, he speared several kunai through the ring on the end, then with a flick of his wrist, he sent the kunai flying back, ring first. Satisfied that the blunt end of the kunai had found their marks, effectively knocking a few of his former comrades out. Ducking under a punch, he spun around the fist and grabbed it, wrenching the arm back, producing a cry of pain from Lee, the owner of the said arm. Kitsune released this arm, letting Lee drop to the ground, cradling his injured arm.

Suddenly Kitsune leapt side, the shadow passing harmlessly beside him, grimacing at what a pain this was, he preformed a quick shunshin, appearing instantly beside the shadow user's side, using the hilt of his katana, a quick blow to the temple was enough to make the genius crumple to the ground, out cold. Twisting and turning to dodge a huge canine and his master, two vicious axe kicks from the side put them out of the battle. Blocking Neji's attack was simply a matter of knowledge, during his training with Shichi, he had learned all about pressure points, tenketsu and nerve endings, where they were and how to exploit them.

Therefore, since he already knew Neji's attack was directed at tenketsu, it was simply a matter of moving his sword to cover those tenketsu in order to ensure his own safety. In the middle of his attack though, a roundhouse kick with all his power and weight behind it was enough to knock out Neji. A swarm of bugs quickly dragged Neji out of the line of fire and then converge on Kitsune. In retaliation, he flew through a set of familiar hand seals, "Fuuton: Kaze Yaiba!" A whirlwind surrounded the bugs and the sharp piercing blades of the winds killed many of the hive, forcing Shino to recall them and hurl a set of shurikan in their place.

The shurikan were all redirected at Tenten, who was rushing at him with a chained scythe. She swatted the shurikan away with her scythe and managed to wrap the chain around his katana which was on the offense. With a grunt, he twisted his katana loosening the chains wrapped around it and stabbed forwards, effectively cutting her arm. Making a split second decision, she wisely decided to let go of the chain binding his katana rather lose her arm over it. As she did so, he finished that fight with an open palm to the abdomen.

Turning from them, he faced the remaining three, Sasuke, who had recovered from the kick earlier, Sakura and Hinata, both whom looked at him with a pained expression. "And then there were three," he grinned fiendishly at them, but they couldn't see that of course due to his mask. Not waiting for any response, he speared over half a dozen shuriken and kunai that lay littered on the ground from before with his katana, and then with a flick of the wrist he sent those projectiles flying towards them. Flying through his handseals at breakneck pace, he shouted out, "Kage Shurikan no Jutsu!"

The weapons suddenly flickered in mid-flight and then doubled, then tripled creating a wall of sharp pointy projectiles. The three Konoha nin readied kunai of their own, deflecting the majority of the incoming weapons, recieving minor cuts and scratches from the onslaught. The wall of weapons was all the distraction Kitsune needed though, he had sensed Laughing on his way back, with a chakra induced punch, he opened a new doorway in the wall, seeing that they were almost finished with the wall of weapons, he formed a singular and familiar handseal, "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" The thick mist wafted in, surrounding Kitsune in a spiral first then swiftly spreading to other parts of the place. A minor Genjutsu would be enough to prevent Hinata from using her Byakugan to follow them, he was never good at Genjutsu, so lucky for him, Laughing had prepared something called Genjutsu Seals.

Which were essentially exactly what their name implied, seals that cast a genjutsu, they were quick to use, could last a long time and were pretty handy for people who were practically useless in Genjutsu. Pumping enough chakra into the seal so it would last a good ten maybe fifteen minutes tops, which was enough time for the two of them to get going and get far enough away from the village. He slapped the self-adhesive seal onto the wall next to the hole and leapt out, sensing Laughing jump out right behind him. "Nice work there buddy boy," Laughing's mask had glowed faintly when he leapt out of the hole but now the glow had faded away, that was an indicator that the seals in the mask was working to release the genjutsu as soon as he had encountered it.

"Same for you," Kitsune replied, sheathing his katana with a low rasp. The rest of the journey was continued in silence, until they had crossed the border and was well on their way to Suna.

* * *

"I remember why I hate the desert...it's so hot out here," Naruto grumbled as they trudged through another dune of hot sand. He had long ago taken off his mask as he felt it was suffocating him, but it was only a tiny bit better without it on, a tiny bit. Laughing hadn't removed any of his clothing, his dark cloak and mask still in place.

Finally Naruto couldn't stand it any more, he turned around sharply and pointed a finger in Laughing's face. Raising his mask faintly to give Naruto a bemused look, Laughing simply bit down on the offending finger with his very sharp canine, which elicted a howl of pain from the blonde. "You bit me!"

"You offered me the finger, would you have prefered I cut it off, cook it then bit it?" Laughing replied offhandedly, continuing walking through the sand.

Naruto hissed and muttured curses under his breath as he nursed his swelling finger, inside his head, Kyuubi was howling with laughter. **"He got you! He so got you! Ahahaha, oh man that was good!"**

"Only a little bit further buddy boy and then we'll be at where the client is meeting us so hurry up," Laughing called out behind him, already leaving the Jinchuuriki behind.

"Oi! Wait up! I'm injured!" Naruto yelled, scrambling around in the sand in an effort to catch up.

* * *

They arrived shortly at a small town called Uindo which specialized in glass making and glass blowing. People seemed to ignore the two and keep on going about with their daily business. They seemed to know Laughing and weren't at all scared of him as he walked around in his mask and battle get-up, several children waved at him as they walked past, to which he responded with a mere nod.

At last he turned down a small pathway to a simple garden gate which swung open with a soft creak. Upon closer inspection, the garden gate was completely made of glass, in fact, once you got a closer look around, everything was made from glass, or stained glass, from the roses planted in the soil to the birds sitting on the birdbath...which was again made of glass.

"Garasu-san? Are you there?" Laughing called out, standing in the middle of the garden, he didn't go up to the glass house and knock on the door, which Naruto found was odd.

"Come on down!" A voice called out from seemingly nowhere. The glass staircase leading up to the house, glowed faintly and part of the walk way moved back to reveal that the staircase continued downwards.

Raising his eyebrows faintly, Laughing trudged down the stairs in his usual brisk pace while Naruto hesitantly stepped down the transparent stairs, it felt like he was walking on air, almost like the glass was going to crack under him at any given moment and he was going to plunge to his apparent death.

Once he realized that Laughing was far ahead of him he hastily bounded down the stairs after him, still watching the glass underneath him wearily.

Garasu-san turned out to be a man in his late twenties, sitting in a room that was lit by the forge in the far end. All around him stood glass creations, varying in size, shape and colour. While Naruto gaped like a fish out of water at the spectacle surrounding him, Laughing was in business mode immeadietly, conferring to Garasu about their deal.

Garasu smiled and turned, opening a large cabinet at one side of the room while Laughing pulled out the scroll containing the blueprint they had just stolen. Turning back, Garasu placed a medium sized cage covered by a cloth on the table and a briefcase. The briefcase was unlocked and opened, showing bundles of ryou, all neatly tied and placed in the briefcase. Laughing scanned over the bundles briefly, his mind calculating the amount. He sealed all the money into two different scrolls, half and half, half for himself and half for Naruto. Then the cage was unveiled.

Inside the cage stood two elegeant creatures, both were entirely made of glass but moved quite fluidly. You couldn't quite see them in the dim light, but you could make them out as what little light there was reflect off of them in a rainbow of colours. Garasu took the first one out and handed it to Laughing, who accepted it, by allowing the creature to crawl up onto his arm. The creature stretched, and flexed its wings, and Naruto reconized it as a dragon, he could just see it's curving fangs.

Garasu beckoned him closer before handing him his own creature. A fox made it's way up his arm slowly, twining around his shoulders, where it settled down for a nap. "These two have been tested but they adapt and learn so quickly it's impossible to tell what their limit is," Garasu informed them, "they'll eat whatever you eat and more than often, they'll eat rocks or metal. They can draw off your chakra, your enemy's chakra, the chakra around them or whatever they eat, so you don't have to worry to much. And they can repair themselves, so if something happens to them, give it an hour, if nothing good happens, then bring them to me."

Laughing turned from the fancy new creature perched gracefully on his shoulder to the glass maker, "Arigatou Garasu-san." He gave a deep bow before turning swiftly on his heel and leaving back the way they came. Naruto gave a quick hasty bow and followed his partner out as well, the glass stairs went by unnoticed as his attention was still rivited on the glass fox sleeping on his shoulders.

Once they were outside again, the glass convering slid back over the stairs, a low rumbling was heard and the glass ground beneath them began to shake. Several moments passed before the rumbling finally stopped and all was still once more. "Come on buddy boy, destiny doesn't wait for anyone!" Naruto turned, only to find Laughing already way ahead of him, halfway down the street.

"Well it better damn wait for me then!"

* * *

**And that was the chapter, a sort of long chapter if you ask me, more will be revealed about the glass creatures in later chapters and yeah...that's about it. So please R&R, remember even the littlest things help, until next time. ~AnimeClouds~**


	10. Way of the Will

**Hey guys, it's moi, as usual! I think this chapter might be a little late, but oh well...I have this giant English project I have to finish, it's a glog. Which is a virtual poster on a website called Glogster, it's kinda fun and addicting. Plus all we have to do is pick a hero, or a superhero and say how they contributed to society. Not real life society but the society in the book/comic book/cartoon/ect they're from. So I picked Raven from Teen Titans, yes she is my favorite superhero, next to Kid Flash, but too many people were doing theirs' on him so I picked her. But that's just me...so enjoy the chapter!**

**Edit: I had a few grammatical errors in this chapter that Lanslet picked out for me, thank-you I think I go most of them, if you see another one let me know and let me know which one, it helps :D**

**Edit: I finally got my spell check working again, so I'm going through my chapters editing out stupid mistakes, the next chappie will be up a little later.  
**

* * *

The two had set up camp in the dense underbrush one day while just wandering around aimlessly, trying to find some missions or bounties. Both were inexplicably bored out of their mind and both were simply sitting there, a fire lit and chewing away on some cooked wild boar. The two glass creatures gnawing away on some ribs hungrily. Neither of them bother to conceal their presence, their masks sitting next to them, someone finding them might be fun anyways, if not nice. There was a long silence, punctuated by the sparks from the crackling fire, before Laughing finally spoke up, "I think it's time, I've discussed with Shichibi, you need to start training in the way of the Will."

Naruto looked up clearly surprised, he had never heard of Laughing mention Shichibi, he had only heard him mention about him being a Jinchuuriki as well when he had first met Laughing at the bottom of the hole. But nothing else, the topic had never really come up in any of their conversations either so it wasn't too big of a shock. "What's the way of the Will?"

"It's a method that will allow you to control Kyuubi's power, there are two ways, one way is to go through such a harsh training that your body can naturally be able to control all the chakra, that could take years and years, and it's very painful. The second would be to simply train your mind and your will to the point where your will is stronger than the influence of Kyuubi's chakra. So you will do what you want to do, not what Kyuubi wants you to do. This is a much faster and easier way, not to mention that it's much less painful, which is a good thing, seeing as how we don't have too much time on our hands," Laughing finished off his piece of meat and helped himself to another which hung over the fire, its fat crackling in the heat.

"So how do I train my mind?" Naruto asked, sitting up straighter at the sound of training and learning something new.

Laughing paused before looking around him on the ground, finally he spotted it, a pebble, about the size of somebody's eyeball, opening his hand so the palm face up, the pebble flew into his hand. He tossed the pebble to Naruto who caught it mid-flight, "As you can see, I didn't use any chakra to bring that pebble to me, but merely used my will to make it come towards me. I want you to focus on that rock until you can get it to levitate without chakra, when you can get it to levitate, that means you have found the state of mind, it might take you a while, but I'll give you a week. If you can't get it down in a week then we're going to do the harsh training." Laughing instructed. He yawned, it was only mid-afternoon, but the warm sun beating down unrelentlessly on his back was making him rather sleepy. "Wake me when the sun sets, we'll keep on moving at night."

Naruto nodded and created several hundred Kage Bunshin, each one dashed off to find their own pebble and to sit down and get working on trying to make the blasted little rock move upwards an inch. The original set the rock down on the ground in front of him, crossed his legs and began taking deep calming breaths, he tried to clear his mind and focus on nothing but the rock levitating. It was hard as his thoughts kept wandering off, what would their next job be like? How was Shichi and Grandmaster doing back at the temple? When could he get a decent bowl of ramen? But despite all this, Naruto gritted his teeth and tried pushing all the thoughts away, focusing on the rock and the rock only. Slowly the thoughts faded into the background, he knew they were still there but they weren't his center of attention, the pebble sitting on the ground in front of him was.

Suddenly he was brought out of his state of mind by a sharp rap on the head, startled, Naruto tried to jump up and defend himself, but he had crossed his legs, making him just fall flat on his face, "Ow..."

"I thought I had told you to wake me up when the sun sets! Look now! It's already pretty late! Sheesh, let's get moving buddy boy, we'll have to go twice as fast as planned to make up for lost time, come on, get moving, we can talk once we're on our way," Laughing glared at the boy on whom he had just used the hilt of his katana to whack over the head with. He picked up his glass dragon, which was named Kagerou oddly enough and leapt into the trees, not even bothering to wait for the blonde, he knew Naruto could easily catch up to him if he really tried. The fire had been put out by dirt on the ground and their tracks erased by a wind jutsu by the looks of the scattered dirt.

"Gomen, gomen!" Naruto apologized frantically, scooping up his pebble and putting it into one of the inside pockets of his cloak. All of his clones disspelled at the same time with a large puff of smoke, giving him a headache as all their memories flowed back to him, brushing the pain aside, he struggled to get his bearings in the smoke. Hurriedly, he donned his mask and picked up his pack, which hadn't been open at all. Once he made sure his glass fox, named Hikaru was secure on his shoulder and that they didn't leave anything behind, he leapt after his partner, letting his cloak drag on the ground, effectively erasing any foot prints he had left behind.

* * *

Kitsune had caught up to Laughing about fifty miles or so away from their camp site, at that point, it was difficult to track him because he was simply a blur of black against the dark wood of the trees. The two traveled in silence, neither had anything really to say, and you couldn't really do anything when you're traveling at a speed of a hundred miles per hour, if not even faster. Soon enough, they arrived at a long river which twisted its way through the forest they had been traveling in for so long now. Laughing skidded in the slippery riverbanks, finally stopping when he used chakra to stick the the muddy ground.

"Fill your water bottles, I don't know when we will get more water," Laughing took out his canteen and walked out to the middle of the river, where the water wasn't nearly as obstructed or dirty as the riverbanks were. He dipped the canteen in the water, filling it to the brim. Rummaging around in his cloak, he pulled out two little round white tablets, marked with a little water droplet. "Water purifying tablets, I don't know what's in this water and where its been," he explained, dropping one into Kitsune's bottle as well.

Once they were ready, the two of them decided to follow the river, well not walk along the riverbanks, that would be way too obvious, although both were sorely tempted to. Laughing didn't want anyone to know they were there when they were traveling, they definitely didn't want any stalkers, or hunter-nin for that matter either. So they leapt into the trees again, this time keeping the river in their sights, trying not to stray too far from the river. Laughing's theory was that where there's water, there's always civilization. And a big river like this should have a fairly large civilization. And civilization meant people, and people meant jobs for them.

The pair traveled for what seemed to be hours on end, until the sun was directly above them and it was getting really hot out. Now it wasn't as hot as Suna was, but the thing was that it was humid, very humid. Combine humidity with heat and it was complete torture. Of course, Laughing was perfectly composed, not a single hair out of place, and a drop of sweat fell. At last Kitsune couldn't take the heat and humidity any longer and collapsed in the shade of a particularly large tree. Hikaru leapt off of his master's shoulders just in time to not get crushed into little bit, he made a sound which was equal to a growl for other animals. This sound was nothing like a growl, it was more like nails on chalkboard and it sent shivers down your spine.

"Well if you're going to rest, you might as well find a more sheltered place to rest," Laughing sighed and helped his goofball of a partner up.

Kitsune's eyes widened, Laughing's hand was cool, like he had spent the whole day in an air-conditioned ice cream parlour or something, drinking ice-cold drinks all day. "How-why is your hand so cool? Why aren't you even sweating?" Seeing how Kitsune was standing upright again, Hikaru leapt up onto his rightful place on Kitsune's shoulders again, but as he did, he made sure to dig in his sharp glass claws, as a warning to Kitsune, not to crush him again, accidentally or not.

Laughing didn't answer and made his way over to the base of a gigantic tree, the tree's roots were all tangled and twisted over each other and Laughing could clearly see a large space beneath all those roots. He circled the tree once, then twice and then a third time, Kagerou also watching the tree intently as his master circled it, Kitsune watched him with his with his eyebrows raised faintly in interest. The last time he walked around, he walked behind a rather large root, Kitsune waited for Laughing to reappear on the other side of the root, he stood there, staring at the root and waiting for Laughing's grinning dragon mask to peek out but nothing appeared. No sounds, no movements. He looked helplessly at Hikaru, who merely just gave a shrug, if you could call it that.

Kitsune panicked, was it a trap? Had Laughing fallen for the trap? Was he in trouble? "Laughing? Laughing?! Are you there?!" Kitsune ran his eyes around the roots and the last root that Laughing had disappeared behind. He dashed forwards, katana drawn, waiting for some unknown enemy to just jump out and ambush him. But there was nothing, Kitsune ran around the tree like Laughing had just done moments before, he had run around four times when he realized what he was doing was completely illogical and idiotic. He reached out with his chakra, yep Laughing's chakra signature was there, within the roots?

Frowning he walked forwards, sheathing his katana, he walked around the last root Laughing had walked around, then he noticed the large gap between the roots, the moss was a little crushed on the ground where the gap was. Understanding what Laughing had done and what he had just done to make a fool of himself, he hurried through the gap. The gap was more like a passageway, which was formed by the overlapping, gnarled roots. It twisted and turned sharply, one right after the other, just as he could make out his partner's shape, the passage was got a little narrowed and he had to worm and wiggle his way in between the roots.

"Took you long enough buddy boy, what the hell were you thinking, running around yelling my name out like that?! Are you stupid? Did you hit your head and get brain damage? Or do you even have one?" Laughing fired off question after question, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. He sighed, "You're a total moron you know that? I don't even know why I put up with you...or chose you to be my partner."

Kitsune gulped, memories came flashing back, the villagers calling him names, getting beaten and stabbed, getting banished, this was like a total deja vu. He closed his eyes under his mask and prepared himself for the verbal if not physical beating his was about to get, he paused and waited, and waited and waited and nothing. He opened up his eyes tentatively, Laughing stared at his with one eyebrow raised slightly in question and mild amusement, as if saying, 'What the hell are you doing buddy boy?'

Kitsune relaxed, but realized he shouldn't have done that, now his guard was down and was totally unprepared for what was coming next. Laughing had flung his fist at his face, purposely aiming it so it would fly by his head, once it did, he curved his wrist and elbow around, wrapping his whole arm around Kitsune's neck. Essentially he had just put Kitsune into a headlock. Drawing Kitsune's head closer to his body, Laughing's other hand formed a fist and gave Kitsune a noogie. All of this happened in a split second and had Kitsune in complete shock. So he wasn't going to get beaten or killed, instead he got a noogie.

It too Kitsune all his strength to break free of Laughing's headlock, and when he did he stood there completely shocked.

"You're an idiot but that's what I like about you, always the number one unpredictable ninja...it suits your style, although you seriously need to use ALOT of common sense if you want to really survive, up 'till recently, you've been living because of luck, but that luck's bound to run out some day, so smarten up!" Laughing whacked him across the top of his head lightly with the hilt of his katana.

"Yessir! Thank-you sir!" Kitsune bowed, a silly grin plastered all over his face, so Laughing didn't hate him, or think he was useless, he was just toying with him...

* * *

**And that's a wrap up! Thanks to all those that reviewed last time, and please continuing reviewing. Remember, even two or three words work for me! Just let me know what you think! And the whole Way of the Will thing is a going to be really important later on, so are the two glass creatures, although they didn't really get mentioned too much in this chapter so don't think I'm retarded and just throwing random things in there without any apparent order or system. There is method to my madness...Of course, until next time!**

**~AnimeClouds~**


	11. Bounty Hunting

**Sorry this chapter is really really really late, I had a band concert, badminton tryouts (which I passed with flying colours), badminton practice (because I made the team), a birthday party I had to go to, I got a new XBOX 360, so you know where I spent a lot of my time :D and I was out of town for spring break so that certainly didn't help. On top of that I've started drawing recently, (mainly Negima characters, if you haven't read the manga you should :P) and I'm really lazy...but still enjoy the chapter as I don't know when the next chapter will come out.**

* * *

Laughing was sleeping soundly in his fuuton across the room, his back was turned to Kitsune but Kitsune was pretty sure that he could still sense, somehow what was going on around him. Currently, Kitsune sat on the window sill of their hotel room, meditating, the rock that Laughing had given him in front of him. He was breathing slowly and deeply, his eyes closed and his one hand on top of his katana should anything happen. In his mind, the rock was all he could see and feel, the rock seemed to breathe in and out as he did, matching the rhythm of the rising and falling of his chest. The moon shone brightly above him, casting unusual shadows along the walls and the ground. Somewhere out there a dog howled at the full moon and crickets chirped, it was quiet...too quiet...things were never this quiet.

They had reached a fairly large city down the river they were following earlier, filled with factories and industrial plants. But luckily, on the older side of town, there were still good old bars with notice boards, hiring mercenaries for various jobs. Laughing had gone through three bars before finally giving up and decided to bounty hunt instead. So he bought a little bingo book, pocket sized from a nearby weapons shop and flipped through it idly, looking for someone that would put up a half decent fight and their head would pay well. He had decided, after much contemplation, on the Karuka's. A group of missing nin from Kirigakure, all of them related to each other in some way, and they had reproduced to the point where there were roughly thirty of them in total, all of them family, all thirty of them had terrorized towns and villages and many missions had been sent out to different shinobi villages, but all had failed..

Each one was worth fifty thousand ryo, and the leader Haragi was worth one hundred thousand. They looked like pretty strong fighters, and they ought to be, being brought up in the 'Bloody Mist'. You didn't survive there just based on luck, it was a kill or be killed kind of place. By the look on Laughing's face, he was going to enjoy hunting them.

* * *

The two had spent three days on the road, asking around neighboring towns and villages about the whereabouts of the Karuka's, nothing really came up, only vague answers and rough directions. Nothing, until they took a quick pit stop at a bar in town. The bar was a more shadier place in the town, lots of creepy looking people and many who gave them a quick one over with their eyes. Kitsune was sure that he would double check to make sure his wallet was still with him by the time they left.

Because of all of their previous failures, Naruto was mildly discouraged and didn't even bother asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of the Karuka's, instead settling down at the grimy counter and ordering a sake. Laughing on the other hand was as cheerful as usual, having put away the mask so nobody would recognize their alter egos yet, take one look at him and you would get a sense of confidence and power off of him in waves. Seeing as how his partner had plainly refused to move, Laughing took it upon himself to ask the bartender a few questions quietly.

"You have any idea where these guys are?" Laughing slid a small pile of photos across the counter, all of members of the Karuka clan.

The barman took one glance at them and shook his head, wiping down another cup with a towel. Laughing nodded slowly, people were very secretive and fearful of powerful clans like this, if the clan found out who had given away their location to an enemy, you could start digging your grave now. Casually he tossed a couple ryo onto the counter, the barman looked at the money and then up at Laughing's face before quickly reaching out to claim the money, but not before another hand slapped down hard on top of his lightning fast as he dragged the money towards him.

The barman looked up at Laughing, slightly intimidated, just what Laughing wanted, a little bribery and a little fear always did the trick. The barman gulped, and leaned closer to whisper in Laughing's ear, "I don't have anything on these guys but I know the old fella over there might, he keeps tabs on everybody around here. Now you didn't get this information from me if anyone asks, got it?"

Laughing nodded silently and released the barman's hand, watching him squirm as he quickly tucked the money into his pocket. He then turned to the old guy sitting by himself in the darkest corner, he had a fisherman's hat on and a filthy brown coat that looked much too big on his hunched back. Casually snatching his stack of photos, a jug of sake and a clean cup off the counter which the barman was about to object to but then wisely decided to keep his mouth shut in fear of being decapitated.

As if Laughing knew the old man well, he sat down at the same dirty table as the man and refilled the man's empty sake cup. Several empty sake bottles stood in a random order next to the old man but as the man raised his head to look at Laughing pouring him a drink it was obvious that he could take his alcohol really well as he looked far too sober to have drank all those bottles.

"It's on me," Laughing assured the man before pouring himself a drink and downing it in one go. He grimaced, the stuff was cheap but still he welcomed the feeling of the liquid burning down his throat like fire.

The man paused as if thinking before copying Laughing and drinking his in one gulp, letting his hand fall back to the table with a low thud, "What do ya wanna know?"

Laughing took his time, refilling both of their cups before sliding the stack of photos across the table. In a low and dark voice he asked, "Where are they?"

* * *

Where they were turned out to be just a couple hours run east from the town. For all the things the Karuka clan was known for, intelligence was obviously not one of them, as Laughing was yelling about right now.

"Who the hell makes their camp in a freaking valley? And they go and clear cut all the freaking trees to make their little buildings with! They might as well have a big neon sign saying, 'Karuka Residence'." Laughing growled, the Karuka were obviously stupider or more arrogant than he had originally thought, although he really hoped it was the first one.

"But you have to admit, their numbers sure are something to be scared of, maybe that's the reason of their stupidity, there's safety in numbers right?" Naruto asked, already sliding his Kitsune mask over his face with a devilish grin.

Laughing grinned evilly back at his partner, "Wrong."

* * *

"This is f*****g bullshit Kakuzu I don't understand why we have to go bounty hunting again!" a certain Jashinist complained to his partner.

Kakuzu shot Hidan a glare that he had picked up off of Itachi, "Not my fault you go and spend all the money on sake you douche bag, now you have to pay up for it."

This silenced the Jashinist immediately, he liked the searing feeling of sake, nothing else could replace it, except the thrill of killing someone, which is why he should stop complaining now, but instead, he continued. "By why a f*****g entire army of Kiri nuke-nin? You've seen f*****g Kisame, they're beasts!"

"Kisame is only Kisame because he's one of the seven legendary swordsmen of the mist, the rest are relatively weak compared to him, I even checked with him before this," Kakuzu stopped adbruptly at the edge of a cliff. Below them lay a huge camp with people milling around, sharpening weapons and drinking sake, all of them were oblivious to the destruction that awaited them. "Look if you stop complaining, you can have all the sake you find down there."

* * *

"You know...they're relatively weak, I don't know why there's such a large bounty on the lot of them," Kitsune mused as he ducked under a giant axe and axe kicked its wielder out of the battle with a sickening crunch as steel plated ninja sandals met bone.

"I told you this would be a fun bounty hunting trip," Laughing remarked as he leapt nimbly over a huge brute's back twirling his katana quickly in order to send several heads flying to the ground with a noisy plop. The two of them chatted away as if they were strolling through a park on a nice sunny day and not going through a giant encampment, killing people left and right, rivers of blood streaming down the ground.

* * *

On the other side of the camp Hidan laughed as his scythe brought him another wave of blood. The ground was littered with his ritual circles of blood, dead bodies lay left and right, not really knowing what killed them. "More! More! More!" he cackled maniacally, clearly enjoying himself.

Kakuzu rolled his eyes, he didn't even know why he bothered convincing his earlier complaining partner before if he was going to enjoy himself this much regardless, both of them gained from bounty hunting in multiple ways anyways. One, he got hearts to add to his 'collection', some were fairly strong ones too. Two, Hidan got sacrifices for Jashin. Three, the money from bounty hunting was excellent, way better than being mercenaries. Four, sometimes there was free sake and loot to claim. It was a total win-win situation in the end, despite the much complaining at the beginning.

But this was odd, why were the Karuka so confused? They were running in all directions now, if they were to run wouldn't they run the other way? Somewhere in the midst of the battle he had someone yell, "It's an ambush! Enemies on both sides!" Who else could there possibly be? Hidan was right over there over to the left a little bit, swing his scythe like a mad man, which he probably was so he didn't really count as an ambusher from the other side...unless...

Kakuzu ducked just a steel plated ninja sandal came flying over his head along with a blur of red and black, didn't the Karuka's all wore blue? As as sign of their Kiri defection? Then who would wear red and black? Kakuzu didn't get anymore time to ponder this question as all the Karuka's around him fell neatly on the spot, their throats spurting blood left and right.

Kitsune's eyes widened as he realized who was standing there in front of him, with a casual movement of the wrist he wiped the blood on his katana on a nearby Karuka's dead body, making the blade gleam in the sunlight again. "Feh, stupid zombie bros." The bingo books had describe the two as 'immortal', well let's see how 'immortal they really were.

Laughing cracked his knuckles as he assessed the sudden development in the situation before them, "I'll take this screwed Jashinist, you can take the emo seamstress..."

"Oi! I am not a f*****g seamstress!" Kakuzu bellowed at Laughing.

"I thought he was the potty mouth...now we have the potty mouth bros as well as the zombie bros?" Kitsune pointed his katana at Hidan haphazardly.

"You are so dead the minute I get my hands on you..."

"Bring it on Ms. Seamstress, I'm waiting..."

* * *

**Dun...dun...dun...cliffhanger!!!! Next chapter! The zombie bros and the two duke it out! Who will come out on top? Well tune in next time! (Sorry if I made the Akatsuki a little OOC :P)**

**~AnimeClouds~  
**


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